


the night that the sun came up

by stealingpotatoes



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: ALMOST canon compliant up until AC Odyssey DLCs, DES HAS ISU MARKINGS AND SOME POWERS TOO, Desmond Miles Lives, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Tagging characters as I go, i cba to add all the friendship tags but there're a lot of friendships going on, it's like half fic half ?????????, teen rating for bad language words, the canon we deserved tbh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-17 17:20:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29229111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stealingpotatoes/pseuds/stealingpotatoes
Summary: On the 21st of December 2012, Desmond Miles died.So when he shows up in October 2018, almost 6 years later, it’s a bit of a shock for everyone.And what’s even more of a shock is the fact he’s... glowing like an Isu and has some abilities he DEFINITELY didn’t have when he died.(I started explaining my Desmond (sorta) Lives AU over on Tumblr, so I figured I should also post here)
Kudos: 17





	1. sunrise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So an anon sent an ask about my [Desmond (sorta) Lives AU](https://stealingpotatoes.tumblr.com/tagged/desmond-%28sorta%29-lives-au), and I then abused the opportunity to start telling everyone about the vague story I worked out for said AU back last year when I made it. And yeah... this is it! I'm trying to shove my messy AU at as many people as I can, hence now posting here too.  
> also uh-- before we start: I’m going to apologise for like… everything about the way I wrote this. It’s sort-of half fic, half that-way-your-friends-colloquially-tell-stories-that-you-can’t-keep-up-with. Mainly the latter. in other words, THIS ISN'T MEANT TO BE EVEN A _MILDLY_ POLISHED FIC, it's an explanation behind my arts lol.  
> If you can make sense of this babbling, well done. And thank you very much!  
> Anyways, without further ado, let's go:

On the 21st of December 2012, Desmond Miles dies. 

It’s not for nothing -- his sacrifice saves the entire world from a solar flare -- but he is dead. The Assassins, his family, do not manage to recover his body. Abstergo gets it first. The Assassins hold a funeral as best they can. They mourn (all in their own ways), they keep fighting (for his memory), and they try to move on (they can’t). 

On the 21st of December 2012, Desmond Miles died -- so when he shows up in a city in October 2018, almost 6 years later, it’s a bit of a shock for everyone. What’s even _more_ of a shock is the fact he’s glowing like an Isu and has some abilities he DEFINITELY didn’t have when he died. 

So Desmond wakes up in the middle of some city in he doesn’t know where (yeah ok i just never really worked out where the secret lab would be), with 1. no idea of how he got there and 2. no idea why his arms are _glowing like that_ . He doesn’t get much time to think about it because then there’re a load of Abstergo goons with guns surrounding him. Des may have no idea what’s happening, but he knows one thing: _when u see an Abstergo, it’s on sight_. So he’s fighting them -- which is admittedly not fun or easy when you’re in the middle of a road and only have your fists as weapons. It’s not going well and then someone definitely manages to shoot Desmond which is very bad -- but then Des feels some very weird (but not unfamiliar) feeling and when he looks up from the bullet wound, every one of the Abstergos are on the floor???? He doesn’t think to check if they’re dead, just legs it out of there lmao. 

//

Elsewhere, in an Assassin safehouse in an undisclosed location _(can you tell I just didn’t think about the geography of anything)_ , Mr Shaun Hastings is chilling on a balcony,laying low after a mission well done. Then Rebecca Crane yells “Shaun?” from inside. 

“Rebecca?” 

“Come inside. Now.”

Shaun immediately does so because he assumes it’s important or they’re under threat. “What happened? Have we been compromised?”

Rebecca doesn’t answer. 

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Shaun says, mostly joking and with a little smirk -- though Becs looks spooked. 

“Desmond’s alive.”

Shaun’s not smirking anymore. “What?”

“Desmond’s... he’s alive.”

“What are you talking about? Are you high?” he’s totally about to look at her eyes to see if they’re all dilated and druggy. 

“No Shaun, I mean it!” Becs harshly shoves her tablet into his hands. 

Shaun doesn’t really know what he’s expecting to see when he looks down at the screen. What he’s not _really_ expecting to see is Desmond Miles, who’s been dead for six years, fighting a load of Abstergo people -- while shirtless and lined in _Isu markings_. (fun!)

“It’s security camera footage from [the city]... About two hours ago.” Rebecca then swipes through more footage with shaky hands and explains that Des very violently burst out of an Abstergo facility in the city with glowing eyes and light leaking out of him (almost like an Apple of Eden). Then the glowing eyes and shining lights shuts off abruptly and Des is standing in the middle of the road looking very confused at his precursor-ass arms and chest. But Shaun is barely listening to what she’s saying and barely even looking at the screen. 

“Where did you get this?” Shaun asks with a hollow voice, not looking up. 

“Initiates.” (bc who else)

Shaun looks at it again, then at Rebecca, and he’s mildly aware of the fact he’s slightly tearing up; “That’s fake. That can’t be him. He’s dead, Becs. We both saw the…” They both saw the autopsy footage the ac4 researcher got from Abstergo -- or at least, tried to watch it; they shut it off as soon as Shaun ran to the bathroom to throw up and Rebecca quickly joined him. They spent the rest of that night crying and drinking way too much. 

“He died.” Shaun concludes firmly. 

And so Becs is all like “yeah but what if he didn’t?? We need to find him. We need to investigate this.” There’s a determination in her eyes and Shaun _knows_ he’s not going to be able to convince her to drop this -- not that he would. Desmond might be alive, and there is no way they’re going to leave him again. 

They’re both standing there in pure shock and confusion, not saying anything. 

Rebecca’s comm device lights up and starts buzzing, snapping them out of their general ????-ness. Becs goes to her desk to grab it, glances at the caller id and then shows it to Shaun. It’s William Miles. 

The two of them share a Look. They know what he’s calling about -- what else would it be? There’s a stilted moment of neither of them doing anything before Rebecca finally accepts the call. “William?” 

“How quickly can you and Shaun get to [city]?” William sounds shaken -- probably the same way Rebecca and Shaun are -- which is a very weird way to hear the Mentor of the Brotherhood sound. He’s seen the footage, hasn’t he? 

“In a few hours,” Rebecca replies. 

“Good. You need to get there as soon as possible.” 

Everyone’s silent for a few moments. 

“Is this about Desmond?” Rebecca asks. Dumb question. 

There’s a pause. “You’ll be briefed on the ground.” And then he hangs up before Shaun or Rebecca can yell at him.

This is all moving very fast. Shaun and Rebecca share another look. Guess they’re going to [city]. ???

// 

Fast forward several hours and Rebecca and Shaun are in The City [might just have to make the city london bc it’s the one city i actually know well -- however for plot reasons we’ll see later, a swiss city might be better… moving on!]. They get to an assassin base and meet up with Galina Voronina and 2 local assassins. Idk if you’ve read the comics, but to sum things up quickly, Galina and her team were investigating and then ended Project Phoenix -- so Galina now really wants to find out if the whole Desmond thing has anything to do with that. 

Galina also wants to help Shaun and Rebecca get their friend back. They’re her friends, but equally she just lost one of her teammates to Abstergo (while ending Phoenix like 2 months ago, in the comics) and is uh- idk how to say it but she wants to help Shaun & Becs who have a chance to get their lost teammate _back_.

What follows is cool gang-gang trying to track down any trace of Desmond. You’d think it wouldn’t be hard to find a person who _literally glows_ , but Desmond’s had centuries of Assassin training and knows how to hide lol.. which is making the Assassins’ job harder lol. 

What’s making it _even_ harder is the Assassins know they have to be quick because they _know_ Abstergo is gonna be looking for Desmond too -- and they have way more resources and stuff. That being said, they’re also currently dealing with the fact one of their building and a decent amount of their guards just got absolutely mullered by weird-glowing-desmond. 

The third issue with their entire thing is that they have no idea what they’re going to find when they find Desmond -- or if he even is Desmond. Is he going to be the man they knew but with weird powers? an Abstergo isu-clone? evil? they don’t know, and so they know they’ve got to be wary with him. 

The Assassin gang spend some time (a couple of days at the very most) trying to track Desmond down. Rebecca is using all the tech she can get her hacker mitts on to find a trace of him and equally throw Abstergo off Des’ trail. 

Soon enough, they get a solid lead -- don’t ask for the specifics, i don’t know them. But they get a lead, and it winds them up in an abandoned apartment building or also abandoned building site or something (a building in the city where there aren’t any people, basically). 

Galina scans the place with Eagle Vision and she’s like “There is something very strange about this place.” (someone?) But she doesn’t see a person-shape anywhere. The 5 of them are hopeful but somewhat on edge. 

They go about searching for any sign of Desmond. Galina’s pretty sure her Eagle Vision is just… Messing Up A Lot lol. Like something’s trying to heck with it. So she’s not quite sure it’s correct when a load of red figures appear somewhere below them. 

She becomes a lot more sure when the red figures come into sight and START SHOOTING AT THEM! IT’S ABSTERGO!! CRAP! they found them!!

The assassins get down and a really cool fight scene w them vs the Abstergos in the building/ building site starts playing out. Woo Shaun and Rebecca electro-hidden-blade moments!! The fight splits the squad up and Shaun and Rebecca are away from Galina & the others -- but they dispatch the Abstergo guards near them.

They’re about to radio in that they’re all okay/ check if Galina & co are also good when they hear a slightly-too-loud footstep. They whip around to see an Abstergo guard aiming right at them, too far for either of them to get him before he shoots them. _crap crap crap_.

they would have been shot -- if someone hadn’t come up behind the Abstergo guard and snapped his neck (ouch). 

The Abstergo drops to the ground, revealing the person who saved them and… Shaun and Rebecca stare in shock. 

They’re both looking at _Desmond Miles_. 

Desmond Miles, who is very much alive (and wearing a hoodie that is 100% stolen). And… with a load of glowing yellow lines on his face. But it’s Desmond -- it’s Desmond for sure. Holy shit. 

Desmond doesn’t seem so shocked, only relieved to see them. Then his expression turns into serious confusion; 

“What the _fuck_ is happening?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> will continue this vagueness soon (: hope you liked and also you DO [want to check out my tumblr that has art for this AU~~](https://stealingpotatoes.tumblr.com/)


	2. Ghosts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> once again sorry about the mess, thank you for reading!!!

Shaun and Rebecca more-or-less knew they were going to find Desmond. They more-or-less knew they were going to see him. They more-or-less knew that he was going to be all glowing like he was in the footage. This being said, they weren’t really prepared for um… any of that to actually happen. 

Desmond is standing here, he is talking. He is _moving_. Alive. Shaun and Becs are across from him, silent and dumbfounded at the sight of their long-dead friend. 

(I need you, my darling reader, to think of the most confused and shocked you’ve ever been in your life, and then bap, you’ve more or less got what’s going on in this room.)

“Desmond?” Shaun finally asks in shock. 

“...yeah?” Desmond answers, obviously very confused at Shaun’s tone. 

_“Holy shit,”_ whispers Rebecca. 

“What happened? We were in the Temple and- and then suddenly I’m here and I’ve got… these?” He gestures vaguely to himself-- the Isu markings.

What he said is enough to sort-of snap the duo out of their shock enough. “What?”

“Yeah, _what?_ ” Des agrees. 

“No, no. The temple-- 2012… that was six years ago. And you...” Rebecca says (still looking at Des with an expression that can only be described as _‘what in the genuine fuck’_ ). 

Shaun and Rebecca wouldn’t have even noticed Galina coming up behind them if it hadn’t been for Desmond’s slight shift into near ready-to-fight, tho he relaxes after a second (his eagle vision’s still there and says she’s an ally). 

Shaun and Becs manage to take their eyes off Desmond for long enough to glance back at Galina, who’s come to find them. 

“You were not replying on your comms--” Galina stops and takes a proper look at the man behind them. “Oh. He does not look dead.” Then back at Shaun & Becs; “We all need to go.” 

Desmond is somehow even more confused than he was earlier. “Why would I look dead? And-- who are you?” 

Shaun has manners, even in very confusing situations; “This is Galina. She’s an Assassin. And Galina, meet… Desmond Miles.” (audible question marks) 

Shaun and Rebecca share an awkward glance. “We’ll explain everything when we get to safety?” Becs says, though she’s really not sure how they are going to explain, or what they’re even going to explain. 

The two random assassins who don’t have names also came out of the fight fairly unhurt and meet up with the rest of them. They’re pretty weirded out to see a person with glowy lines on his face, and have heard of Desmond Miles’ death. However they’re obviously not as weirded out to see him alive because they just didn’t know him. They’re probably doing the best here lol. 

Galina’s pretty confused but she’s become very good at compartmentalising over the years, so isn’t dwelling on things right now. 

Shaun and Rebecca are-- okay, to say Shaun and Becs are _“dealing”_ with this is definitely the wrong word. They’re moving forward like Assassins should, while trying to comprehend that _Desmond is right there_ … and also trying not to look at him too wide-eyed and shocked. Though to them, everything feels like it’s going way too fast and way too slow all at once.

The trio and Galina all get into a van and head out of there, not planning on waiting for more Abstergos. 

//

They reach an old Assassin safehouse outside of the city after a very Odd drive. The two unnamed Assassins stayed in the city to keep investigating and keep up their work before, so now it’s just Shaun, Becs & Desmond in the safehouse with Galina on watch outside. 

They get in, make sure they’re safe -- protocol stuff. But Des really needs some answers. Like _right_ now.

“ _What_ happened?” Desmond asks. This time it’s very serious, and you can almost feel the hundreds of years of killers’ lives he’s lived behind his voice. 

Shaun and Becs share yet another look. The disbelief hasn’t worn off at _all_ , but they’re, as I said, moving forward. “What’s the last thing you remember?” Shaun asks. 

It quickly comes to light that Desmond has _no_ memory of what happened after touching the Eye-orb-thing in the Temple. It’s just “a helluva lot of pain” in December 2012 and then boom, waking up in the middle of a city (shut, i know i still haven’t thought where), in October 2018. He also can’t recall bursting out of that Abstergo facility either -- his memory seems to start from where the weird glowing-eyes-and-apple-light thing he had going on stopped. 

“But the Temple was six years ago?” Desmond quietly half-asks, half-states. 

“Yeah...” says Rebecca. 

“Then where have I been for that time.” 

“You died.”

_“What?!”_

Shaun takes over; “Or at least, we _thought_ you died. In 2012, we got clear from the Temple as you told us to. But then Abstergo, they--” (how on earth do you say this) “They got there before we could. They took your body and...” 

“But obviously you _didn’t_ die because you’re here.” Becs gestures at Des. 

“Right,” Shaun agrees unsurely.

Des nods slowly, trying to take this all in. “But that doesn’t explain… all this.” he gestures to the Isu markings on his face. “Or what I can do.” 

“Do you _know_ what you can do?” Becs asks. She and Shaun don’t really know what was happening w Des’ whole abilities thing at ALL because they only saw a small bit recorded.

Des shrugs, but then unzips the definitely-stolen-hoodie a bit and pulls the opening to the side so his bare collarbone is on show. “I got shot when I… when I woke up.” Rebecca makes yet another confused expression. “There’s nothing there?” She’s right; there’s no wound, no blood there. Not even a scar.

“Exactly.” 

“ _Oh._ ” 

“I heal faster, I know that. And--”

“What’s that?” Shaun numbly gestures to his own chest where a scar starts on Desmond’s. It’s not like either of them have seen Des shirtless much at all before, but that wasn’t there in 2012, they’re pretty sure. 

Des looks down then unzips the hoodie a bit more and _oh._

Shaun and Becs didn’t notice that on the security footage. Tbh _Desmond_ barely noticed it, too busy looking at the _glowiness_. But that’s an autopsy scar. Des has an autopsy scar. That’s...

Desmond zips his hoodie back up, but everyone in the room is Very Confused. 

This is even more question-mark-inducing and raises about a billion questions; Did they do an autopsy on an alive person (for the sake of taunting the assassins)? Shaun and Becs wouldn’t put it past Abstergo; the Templars are messed up like that. 

Or… did Desmond genuinely die? And did Abstergo… bring him back somehow? 

Either way, Shaun’s mentally decided the “weird Isu clone of Desmond” idea is probably wrong because why would they autopsy a clone of a dead man?? makes no sense. 

There’s more long pauses of bewilderment before Rebecca makes the very good suggestion that they all have something to eat. So yeah, they eat, they’re chatting. It’s mostly basic stuff. They should definitely have all had medical checkups first, but they’re all very much too confused and in shock to do like… anything. 

It’s a bit awkward at one point (more awkward than the ENTIRE ordeal of seeing your dead friend again has been) because Shaun catches himself before telling Des a part of a story that involves secret Assassin crap and stops awkwardly. 

Desmond seems to catch on, and he’s like “I get it. Abstergo might have done something to me.” Made him a mole or a sleeper agent like Daniel Cross. 

Shaun and Becs feel really bad, but Desmond’s got this weird air of resignation about him. He understands. He knows he might be all messed up and controlled by Abstergo. That being said, the general resignation might just be pure shock at _everything_. A Lot Has Happened to him in a Very Short Span of Time (to him). 

They continue on chatting, mostly inane shit. Desmond asks if his parents are… still around. Shaun and Becs assure them they’re fine, though still fighting. Say a little about how William took Des’ death really hard, (no duh), and dropped out of the fight for a year. Only came back after finding out what Abstergo did to Des’ corpse (or… alive body???) -- tho the duo try to avoid saying what Abstergo did for now. 

However there’s another pause when Rebecca is, in very vague terms, explaining what happened in London in 2015. Rebecca starts telling Des what the Shroud is when she pauses and looks like she’s just solved some complicated code.

“I thought you were skipping the secret details?” Des asks.

“This isn’t that-- the Shroud heals people. Like, _really_ fast,” Rebecca says.

Shaun gets where she’s going. “Ah... so say if someone got shot, it would heal almost immediately. And there would be no scar or visible wound afterwards.” 

Desmond takes a moment, and then he’s like “...you think I have the Shroud’s powers?” 

Now this doesn’t really solve any questions, and if anything creates more… but it adds something? Heck, this is all so confusing for everyone involved.

Anyways at some point they decide to actually all go to sleep. Galina’s still here btw, she also goes to sleep lol. Though before they do go to their own beds, Shaun and Becs have a quick chat about how _weird_ this all is. Very Weird. 

Uh yeah so shrugging noises, Galina at some point the next day is assured the trio will be fine on their own and heads back to the city to investigate with unnamed Assassins. 

At some point they do actually do medical checkups lol, and comes up as, overall, Good. Desmond is pretty spritely for a dead guy. 

However they run into an issue: the DNA thingie just Isn’t Cooperating. It won’t sequence it. Probably definitely because they don’t _have_ any tech that can get his wacked-up now-a-lot-more-isu DNA. But it also means they can’t check to see if he’s got the same DNA as he did. So yeah. 

For Rebecca and Shaun, it’s weird how quickly everything starts to feel like old times. As if they might be back in Monteriggioni, or the Temple, hiding out from the Abstergo and the Templars, as if the six year gap never happened. I mean- it’s not _quite_ the same, obviously. Desmond glows now, and there’s always Something to remind them that they thought he was dead, that he was gone -- that something might be Wrong with him. 

Desmond’s, on the other hand, in this very awkward place. Aside from the fact he now has superpowers (which he doesn’t yet know the extent of), he’s also dealing with the fact he was supposedly dead for 6 years. That the world moved on without him and his friends haven’t seen him for _six years_ . 2012 feels like days ago to him, not _years_ . Shaun and Becs are very happy to have him back -- but Desmond didn’t know he was ever _gone_. So where they’re nostalgic for old times, he can’t help but only notice the differences? 

They need to find out what the heck happened in the 6 years they thought Des was dead. Seeing as the Abstergo facility that Desmond escaped from is -- funnily enough -- crawling with Abstergo agents that would very much like to get the three of them, (and that the trio has been told to lay low and try to go as dark as they can for now, while they all try to figure out what’s happening w Desmond) going back there to find crap out isn’t an option right now. So what Rebecca and Shaun are doing -- with a bit of help from Desmond, though he isn’t a tech guy or necessarily allowed to go into the Assassin database stuff yet -- is trying to scrounge up anything they can on Des and the missing six years.

They’re also slightly trying to work out some of Des’ powers, but they’re wary of him using them too much as Abstergo might pick up on whatever power traces he’s giving off. Shaun thinks Desmond definitely has a second PoE-based ability, and thinks it may be the Apple. 

One of the first nights, Desmond asks Shaun and Rebecca what they _are_ going to do if Des turns out to be a sleeper or something. They can’t actually come up with an answer. 

Tbh, the search for info isn’t going brilliantly, even with two of the Assassin’s best searchers on the case. There are other assassins and PLENTY of Initiates looking for info across the world too -- Desmond just… coming back is a very big thing, and moreso is _how_ he came back (ie all Isu-y). They haven’t heard any word from their mentor, Mr Miles senior, though. 

But then Rebecca has an idea! If Desmond’s conscious memory doesn’t know what happened, maybe his genetic memory does? Small issue: they don’t have an animus with them. So they ask for one ig lol. 

Anyways, they’re all chilling, researching, and trying to get to grips with the INSANE idea of EVERYTHING, ya know? Friendship hours. Catching up -- tho Des doesn’t have much to tell. There’s also emotional times!!! Shaun and Becs getting to say what they never had the chance to say while Des was alive, hugs, talking a little bit about the fact that his death (or _“death”,_ perhaps) hit them Hard (though it’s difficult to talk about for all three). 

The first piece of the puzzle that they get isn’t from somewhere they expect. 

About a week after Desmond showed up (so after about 4-5 days of them being at the safehouse), Layla Hassan gets out of Atlantis. She’s just done the Trials via Kassandra and got the staff of Hermes Trismegistus (...in doing so, losing one teammate and gaining some anger issues. oops). Layla’s not that important yet. What _is_ important right now is when she opened Atlantis.

Layla doesn’t have an _exact_ time as to her opening the gates, but guess what happened very soon after the rough time she opened it? One Desmond Miles burst out of an Abstergo facility, glowing like your overly-dramatic neighbour’s Christmas lights display. 

So then this all just adds more mystery to the uh... Mystery™. Did opening Atlantis resurrect him? Did it give him these powers for some reason? If so, why?? The gang also find out/ the Assassins overall realise that opening Atlantis caused some weird powersurge in every PoE -- but if that caused some kind of surge in Desmond too, does that mean he’s a Piece of Eden now? He has the powers of at least one, PoE now, they know, so…? There are too many questions and nowhere _near_ enough answers. 

The trio is itching to get out there and start investigating themselves -- but they’re told that there’s another assassin coming to join the three of them soon (it’s protocol to not say Who), before they start doing anything, and that they should wait for them. Also said Assassin is bringing one of them mini-animuses (animi? whatever; the one Layla has in ACOd) so they can do the genetic memory thing like Becs suggested. 

So I guess it’s time for more waiting, for whomever the assassin may be...


	3. questions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this one’s kinda long, abt 2.7k words because i talk too much, despite TRYING to leave stuff out for streamlining. but dw the next two parts after’ll probably be shorter again 😅 anyway bla bla bla im explaining my apologies let’s get on with it!!!!

Six days after they first arrived at the safehouse, the Assassins’ mystery backup arrives. Or at least, they assume the woman at the door -- whom Rebecca, on watch duty, doesn’t recognise -- is backup because she knows the secret Assassin stuff or whatever. 

The trio head to the door to let the woman in and be prepared to fight if it turns out she’s not the backup or smthn. She comes into the safehouse, Shaun and Becs still don’t recognise her, but Desmond’s eyes immediately widen. That’s her-- she looks older (obviously) and her hair’s grey now but  _ that’s her.  _

“Mom?!” 

“Desmond--" 

And before either of them know it, before they even say ‘ _ hi’ _ or ‘ _ hey’ _ or whatever they’d expected to greet each other with again, Desmond and his mum pull each other into a tight and very loving hug. 

Bear in mind, Desmond hasn’t seen his mum since he was 16, when he ran away from the Farm! So this reunion is  _ so damn emotional _ for him _.  _ Whereas Shaun and Becs seeing him again was more emotional for them, as for Des it only felt like he hadn’t seen them in a few days, not six years, this one actually is super emotional both ways. Des, in his memory, seen his mum in nine years (but she hasn’t seen  _ him _ in fifteen years), so… yeah. 

(small interlude: [I drew her and dumped several headcanons about Des’ mum](https://stealingpotatoes.tumblr.com/post/612863298272116736/stealingpotatoes-shay-voice-oi-make-moi-own) a serious while back, if you wanna click that link and see. However, if you can’t be bothered to look at that, then in my hc her name is Lorraine Miles -- so when I talk about a “Lorraine” person, it’s her.)

They’re hugging for a few moments before general rationality kicks in and they pull away and just  _ look _ at each other and actually say their greetings and  _ “I missed you”s  _ lol. 

They’re both older than the version in each other’s memories (2003 was a while ago lol), and Des of course has  _ Isu markings _ \-- but he still looks like his mother’s son. He’s still got that scar over his lip, the one she patched up after the training session, and he’s still got the slightly lop-sided smile from when his lip was healing up, and he couldn’t move the right side of his mouth too much. Lorraine never thought she’d see that smile again.

The rational, veteran assassin part of her is like “he totally could be a sleeper or clone” but right now that part’s being completely drowned out by the part of her that’s a mother who hasn’t seen her son in 15 years. 

While this is all happening, Shaun and Becs highkey feel like they’re standing in on a Moment they shouldn’t be and  _ Wow! _ look how interesting the floor is! Let's look there instead of feeling like we’re barging in on our friend’s reunion with his mum. 

Luckily, Desmond and his mum do quickly remember that Shaun & Becs  _ are _ also here, Des introduces them, still :D about the fact his mum’s here. They actually haven’t met Lorraine Miles in person before, only messaged her once to offer condolences back in 2012 (which felt… weird). But now they’ve been around her for about 10 seconds but quite frankly might like her more than William already lol. 

ok bla bla Lorraine then explains that she would’ve been here earlier, but her and her team had gone dark, so they didn’t even get word of Des showing up until a few days ago. When she did get word, however, she was immediately contacting the other assassins (she contacted William, though she doesn’t say it to them for reasons we’ll come onto) and asking literally every question she could. 

Des asks about William, but Lorraine says he’s really busy with mentor stuff, which we ALL know means “he doesn’t want to see you & he’s a shit dad”. 

**INTERMISSION THAT WASN’T MEANT 2 B THIS LONG:** ok so let’s discuss what some people are thinking about Des bc idk where else to put this: __

Rebecca is the one person who unequivocally believes that Desmond is Desmond -- and a complete ally, not a sleeper or anything. She works it out as Why the hell would the Templars send  _ him  _ as a sleeper agent?? He’s not exactly inconspicuous. He glows and has PoE powers now, and more importantly  _ he DIED _ . None of those things make it easy for him to just fit back in to the point where he could easily infiltrate and destroy them from the inside. And why would the Templars even send him on the inside when, if they had a way to control Des, they could just use his crazy new eden powers to destroy the assassins as they are? It doesn’t make sense to her, and she’s frankly happy to have her friend back. 

Both Des’ mum and Shaun are a little more on the fence than Becs -- Lorraine out of years of Assassin paranoia and Shaun out of always being a little skeptical of things. They do 100% believe that the (maybe-)human glowstick in front of them  _ is  _ Desmond and not a clone or smthn, and they mostly think he  _ is _ an ally and not a sleeper -- but they’re both going to be a little wary and concerned until they find out what happened in the six years. However, they’re both very very happy to have Desmond back and will treat him as Desmond. There’s half a sense of they wanted him back so badly that they… that they almost don’t yet care if he is bad or something?

William is-- well, I once described William Miles as having the personality of a brick wall with knives attached to it, and I stand by said description. Bill is feeling hella paranoid about this being a bit of a Daniel Cross situation (ie sleeper agent that destroys everything), so he’s almost sure that this Desmond is a hecked up Abstergo Desmond-mixed-with-Isu-DNA clone and  _ not _ his son. That… that and he’s not prepared to lose his son for a  _ third _ time if smthn is up with him. He can’t go through that  _ again _ . Thirdly, Bill’s feeling REALLY guilty about the fact he left Des’ body in the temple, leaving him for Abstergo to yoink. And he probably thinks his decision to keep away from maybe-Desmond is a rational decision -- which in part, it is -- but there’s a lot of pain attached to it. 

Needless to say, Bill’s reaction fucking  _ hurts _ . Especially as Des doesn’t have any memories of the missing six years, so it goes from one second “my dad and I are getting on better terms” to the next “my dad lowkey hates me and thinks i’m not even me”. Des, as I’ve said before,  _ gets it _ to an extent, he gets that the assassins -- his family -- can’t risk fully involving him again because of various reasons, but the knowledge of duty. Oof moments. 

I also want to point out, that Desmond lowkey feels… bad for his friends and mum who think he’s himself? because what if he  _ does _ turn out to be evil? There’s some very messed up crap going on. 

All in all views on desmond come down to 3 categories: “that’s desmond 100%”, “that’s definitely desmond but i'm wary”, and “that aint it chief”. 

**ANYWAYS BACK TO IT:**

Lorraine isn’t just the backup; she also brought an Animus with her so they could see if  _ that _ was a way to see Des’ memories. Which, after some time of her and Desmond being happy to see each other, they try to use. 

Desmond is confused as to why the Animus is so damn small (it’s just a headset! wtf) and not a big chair thing --  _ yay, yet another thing that’s changed in the apparent 6 years he’s been gone _ . 

So they get the headset set up, and Rebecca’s about to parse through the data to look for a memory in the six years but… there’s nothing. No memories during that time. The data’s showing there exists memories during and before 2012, and now, but nothing  _ then _ . Well, except for what looks like half a memory of what seems to be… some kind of a corrupted Animus White Room

The Animus would suggest he’s been quite literally  _ “no thoughts head empty” _ , so to speak, for all that time. Des gets out the Animus and knows it didn’t work and is very much /: because that could’ve been their quick answer to just about Everything going on with Des. 

Rebecca starts hypothesising that maybe the Animus doesn’t completely work with Desmond’s crazy new genetic makeup, that it can’t read it -- because even if he was in a coma or the Animus in that time there would’ve been something... ‘cause there’s  _ no way _ , like zero way possible for Abstergo to have actually deleted genetic memory… then again there should be zero way possible to make a human have First Civ-- 

She walks off with the Animus headset continuing to mumble about fixes and theories. 

Shaun realises he should probably leave Desmond and his mum to catching up by themselves, and says he’ll go make some dinner. 

//

About an hour later when Rebecca (who did move out of her workstation to come have dinner too) yells that they’ve got something. Everyone crowds around her computer. 

So as it would turn out, some wonderful Initiate managed to scrape up a roughly-2-day-old surveillance recording between an Abstergo higher up and a Swiss Abstergo scientist named Dr. Jacques Hanes (an OC, btw). Here’s pretty much how it goes:

“Dr Hanes, take a seat. [pause] Apparently you’re the person who can tell me how Subject 17 -- who last time I checked was dead -- took out half an abstergo facility?” 

“Last time you checked was some time ago.”

“So is it him? Or is this part of Gramatica’s... project Phoenix?” 

“That is subject 17 in the flesh. Not a clone, if that’s what you’re asking.” 

“How? And--“ 

“All due respect  _ madame _ , but I would prefer if you turned off your recording device for the remainder of this conversation.” 

“[pause] Hm. Fine.” 

And then the recording ends. Now this answers several questions! They now know who they need to find, and that Des is  _ not _ a clone (though they mostly thought as much anyways) -- however it obvs doesn’t rule out any sleeper agent theories /: the mystery do be thickening like out-of-date milk

But it  _ also  _ points out that the Templars were hiding this from each other, and this serves as a potential explanation as to why the Assassins haven’t found bull or crap about this before; just maybe, the Templar scientists didn’t want their fellow  _ Templars _ finding out about the fact they’d rezzed a highly skilled Assassin, and so made sure their efforts were secret. Or were they hiding it from something else? 

Ok so yeah bla bla bla Lorraine and Desmond continue to catch up, Shaun and Becs continue to notice how very different Desmond’s mum is from his dad lol.

So after a lil while, Lorraine -- who, like Shaun and Becs, has now gotten over the initial ???-ness of this all -- says she’s got something for Desmond. 

Des is like oh?? And she gets the gift from her bags or smthn and hands it to him and… It’s a hidden blade gauntlet. 

“It would have been yours.” She says 

_ If he hadn’t ran away _ . “Thanks,” Des smiles. 

He gets it set up, and tests it out. The quiet  _ ‘snick’ _ of the hidden blade fills him with a strange sort of comfort. Something he knows about, finally, something simple. At least hidden blades haven’t changed in the past six years. 

That being said, Shaun does offer to make Des an electroblade, like the ones he and Rebecca have, but Des assures him that he's fine with his stabby-stab blade. They’ve been assured they’ll get some missions soon. 

//

I’ll admit I don’t have many details on their first few missions thought out. They’re pretty much all simple ones, nothing too big, or even too murderous lol. Mostly just recon and assistance. It is just very few, they don’t do that many. And their main objective is just  _ find out wtf happened _ . But as I said, you’re gonna have to do the work here and 

It’s not like they can take a plane around lol, but luckily they’re in Europe so driving places is an option. I still don’t know where, just Europe™, tho they never go that far from the og safehouse.

Remember how in AC3 the gang was Rebecca, Shaun, Desmond, and Desmond’s worse parent? Well now we’ve got that crew except we replaced Bill with the Better Desmond Parent!! Because Lorraine hasn’t seen her son in 15 years, and she’s not about to waste any time she could be spending with him.  _ Unlike some people.  _

But also, Lorraine, literally being in her 60s, is most often on mission control/ at base -- though she does do her own Assassin stuff as well; she’s old, not dead. 

Which leaves the main trio now as a field squad. They have this really great dynamic in the field, because they’re all trying very hard to protect one another, even though they don’t really need protection and can handle themselves fine. See, Desmond thinks “okay, I heal super fast and I’m the most trained Assassin. I have to keep my techie friends safe”. Rebecca’s like “Shaun needs help and I need to make sure Desmond literally never dies again”. Shaun’s is the same as Rebecca but vice-versa (ie him thinking Becs needs help). They’re all just like “must protect friends”, it’s great.

Their missions all feel a bit useless; not much happens, and they don’t seem to be progressing forward. Desmond feels particularly useless: he can’t exactly blend in with most crowds anymore, so he generally has to stay hidden while completing objectives. And when they’re staying in a safehouse (which is most of the time), there’s nothing he can really do because he’s not a proper Assassin again, and nor is he a researcher like Shaun or Becs. it’s /: and so all he can rlly do is train (he does spar w Shaun & Becs and is a little ?? at how good they got at fighting. also w his mum) and catch up with the world, ig. 

And even on missions he’s feeling a bit disused. I mean-- he’s lived through the lives of multiple damn good assassins (+ one templar), and he’s an insanely skilled assassin himself, so he feels like a sword being used as a walking stick, I guess. Maybe not even that, because a walking stick is still useful! 

But during this short time, they accidentally discover some new abilities of Desmond’s! The first one they find is that he’s able to just compel enemies to pass out, which is fun and leads to a lot less illegal murder times lol. 

Shaun and Becs slowly begin to theorise that he has the powers of the Shroud, and a few powers of the Apple of Eden. Still begs the question  _ how _ has he got these powers? (and doesn’t answer the “how’s he here” question at ALL). 

Now, they soon discover another ability and the extent of his “shroud” powers -- however Shaun did not have a fun time discovering this: 

They’re on a slightly  _ less  _ useless-feeling mission, and not much happens. Shaun and Becs infiltrate the small & remote Abstergo base without much of an issue, place their bug that’s gonna give them a backdoor to Abstergo servers, Des is outside (sidelines, yay) and they’re about to leave. But of course, things aren’t that simple. Shaun and Becs just HAD to get caught by two Abstergo guards on their way out. 

Rebecca yell-radios to Desmond for backup, but Shaun quickly realises Des isn’t going to be fast enough to stop the Abstergos, who’re equally too far for Shaun or Becs to do something. Time seems to slow down, and Shaun realises he’s acting on instinct more than anything when he shoves Becs out of the way of the Abstergo guard’s bullet. He doesn’t really think about how he’ll definitely end up with a bullet in him instead. He just shoves her out the way. 

Then everything comes rushing back and Des comes out of wherever he was hiding, making quick work of the Abstergos and then they’re  _ getting the hell out of there _ . 

They get to cover, all out of breath, when Becs and Desmond look at Shaun with wide eyes. 

“What?” Shaun looks down. Oh, well would you look at that. Great. He’s been shot.

Oh  _ crap _ \-- Shaun’s been  _ shot! _


End file.
